Posts Tagged ‘edna krabappel’

New job starting today: tutoring one of the Scamps on the reg for the Summer. According to her absolute battleaxe of a mother — who if you ask me is the sole author of all her daughter’s insecurities in academics and anywhere else as, if my conversations with this mother have been any indicator, the poor girl is never able to get a word in edgewise and the mother decides every detail of her life down to making her write it on a calendar, and I empathize with her 1000% — other Scamps’ parents’ calls will be coming in soon. Also, in mid-August, I agreed to put on a 2-day workshop for them to help them prepare for sixth grade vis a vis setting up notebooks, discussing notes and organizational skills, and hopefully developing some strong test-taking strategies.

Though they will still be at the same K-8 school as they have always been, beginning in the sixth grade they will switch classes for different subjects. Not only will their homeroom guy, my old buddy from That Day, J–V–, be their first male advisor, but he will also teach them math. And the science teacher is a man, too.

I wish. Neither J–V– nor Mr. N. looks a thing like Dr. Jones. Maybe Mr. N., a little. But only a little.

So, for a class that is predominantly girls, most of whom have declared openly how unprepared they feel they are for middle school math after their fifth grade experience, there is the concern that they will follow statistical patterns and slip behind in those subjects through a combination of lack of confidence in their own skills, societal conditioning, and intimidation about talking to a male instructor.

The lovely and talented Mrs. Edna Krabappel.

The Scamps are mainly marvelous geniuses and neither they nor their folks need to worry at all about their academic prospects in my estimation, but if those anxious parochial school parents want to pay me to hang out with their kid and prepare them for pre-algebra or read Harriet the Spy with them all Summer, I am totally for it!

Tomorrow I have an interview for a position teaching in the third grade at this same school, it is actually the position my dear Sarah-fina recently abdicated in favor of staying home full-time with my favorite Baby Ginger, and though I don’t hold out much hope that I’ll get it because I know one of the other candidates is far more qualified than I am and has spent the last seven months as the temporary instructor filling in for S-f at that grade level, my application and interview are at least I hope a demonstration to the administrators that I am passionate about pursuing education for my life’s work and that I am committed specifically to the kids at this school. So wish me luck with all my edu-ma-cating and I will catch you on the flip!